He sighed. “Look, the point is that Eliza and Jesse can’t pull out now without major repercussions. Financially and publicly, that would be a disaster.”
Of course,thatwould be the disaster. Not the fact that she’s about to tie her life to someone she doesn’t love. Not the fact that I?—
I cut the thought off before it could finish. It didn’t matter to him or any of the rest of them. Dragging my hands over my face, I inhaled a deep breath that didn’t calm me at all, then glanced around the conference room, taking in the glass walls and the polished table, the billion-dollar view of the Chicago skyline, and realized that the past month really had changed me.
Everything about being here suddenly felt wrong. This place had always felt expansive and powerful, but now, it felt suffocating, like the walls were closing in. Like I couldn’t get enough air despite the size of the skyscraper.
I tried dragging in another breath, but it didn’t help. “I can’t…”
Trailing off, I kept trying to breathe, but my lungs just weren’t functioning. It felt like they were collapsing, my chest aching as I tried to get myself under control.
Alex frowned. “You can’t what, Will? What’s going on?”
“I can’t stay here.” I couldn’t keep doing this. Maybe Charlotte, Alex, and Nate had been happy to fall in line. Hell, maybe even Jesse was committed now, but I couldn’t.
I’d always been a team player, the guy they came to when they needed someone to rely on, and I’d always been there. I’d always opened the door, fixed the problem, and done whatever else they expected of me.
But this? I couldn’t do it, and just like that, my next step became crystal clear. “I quit.”
“What?” he asked.
“I quit,” I repeated a little louder this time. “I resign from my position as COO. Effective immediately.”
Alex’s eyebrows mashed together, his head shaking over and over again. “You can’t quit. Don’t be ridiculous.”
At those words, I felt something snap deep inside, but that was also what gave me the resolve to finally start backing toward the door. “I can quit and I just did. The fact that you’d even think I’m being ridiculous right now? I’m just so fucking done.”
With that, I spun around and threw the lock on the door again to open it, not sticking around for whatever argument he was about to make. I just walked out of the room, ignoring him when he called after me.
“Will! Come back, man. Don’t do this. Let’s just talk.”
I shook my head. I’d tried talking. I’d tried reason. Alex was so caught up in his life, in his wife, his baby, and getting this done faster than the speed of light that he just wasn’t listening. He hadn’t been since the very beginning of all this.
The floor blurred slightly as I strode to the elevator. People glanced up from their desks as I passed, but I didn’t stop or slow down. I just kept going.
“Will, wait!”
His footsteps were behind me now, but I still didn’t look back. When I reached the elevators, I jabbed the button a lot harder than necessary, and when the doors finally slid open, Alex was right behind me, but I walked right into the car anyway.
“Will, this is insane,” he said, grabbing the door before it could close. “You can’t just walk away from?—”
“I already am,” I said without looking at him. “It’s done, Alex. Let it go.”
Exasperation tightened his features. “Just stop and think about what you’re doing.”
“I am,” I said. “For the first time in a really fucking long time, I actually am thinking about what I’m doing instead of just going along with what you all think I’msupposedto be doing.”
I hit the button and the doors started closing instantly. Alex stood right outside them, frustration written all over his face as the gap narrowed between us.
Wrenching my gaze away from his, I caught sight of Jesse standing a few feet behind him, watching us with a perplexed expression on his face and a curious tilt of his head. Just before the doors snapped shut, he inclined his chin in a slight nod and fell back.
Relief sped through me. He might not have said anything, but he hadn’t needed to. Jesse was about to clean up one of my messes for once and I wasn’t even a little bit sorry about it, but the weird part was that he hadn’t seemed sorry about it either.
CHAPTER 44
ELIZA
Two days after I’d landed, I was still in London. The wedding prep was in full swing at Roderick House. Instead of being at a safe distance in Chicago while this was all happening in England, I’d wound up smack bang in the middle of it, a bit like I’d pressed pause on a disaster only so I could watch it get planned in slow motion.
